Watching the Final Four…in London

Syracuse fans in Atlanta and elsewhere around the globe gathered to watch the Final Four.

The smell of bleach was in the air. The tube had closed three hours before. The taps on the bar had long since been taped over. Yet over 100 college-basketball fans — most of them students in Syracuse’s study-abroad program — were still screaming themselves hoarse at televisions as Syracuse and Michigan played in Atlanta, over 4,000 miles away.

The language is mostly the same, but watching the Final Four in London is an entirely different experience than in the U.S. Other American sports translate. Sky Sports — which is, like The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp. — shows the NBA and the NFL. The Super Bowl was even aired by the BBC. Cricket fans can understand baseball. But British sports fans don’t get American interest in college sports. Why watch when most players couldn’t cut it in the pros? Soccer fans will follow their local team even if it’s not in the Premier League, but it won’t be the biggest sporting event on television, and the team still has a chance to be promoted to the top. No matter how well they do on Monday, Louisville and Michigan won’t make it in the NBA.

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